The Beach House

Since we have lived in Maryland, we have had the opportunity to occasionally go and stay at a beach house that belongs to some of Luke's family. We love going there! The kids beg and beg to go to the beach house. Sometimes I think that they think we have different places where we live. They will ask me on random occasions,"Where are we going Mommy? To the hotel? To Grandma's house? To the beach house?" Or..."Mommy, I wanna go to the (insert hotel, Grandma's house, or beach house)." And I must confess, we share their excitement! :)

So sweet, she wanted to bring with her the banner she had made as a decoration for the Hoedown focus party just the day before. 

And right after I took this picture, as we were heading in the front door, my arms were so full of bags, and Owen in the car seat over my arm. As I'm struggling through, Casey, who is already inside the front door and is watching me, sticks out his hand in a gesture of, "here, let me help you." My heart absolutely melted. It's a beautiful thing to me when a small child recognizes someone in need of help, and offers to help them. There wasn't much Casey could do, but he wanted to try! 

I think they look so much alike in this picture!

Hailey had such fun picking up sea shells

Casey didn't like the noise of the waves.

He preferred to look at the water from a distance.

They found this sand castle and and fun poking at it, and inspecting it.

Hailey got such a thrill out of running from room to room and finally claimed this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't let her sleep in there by herself. I think she liked it because it was the room with the starfish decor.

I love catching them in moments of sibling sweetness :)

Enjoying a much deserved rest and drink. 

The perfect place for the team to decompress.

When you don't have a lot of toys, you line up multiple cups of water. And it occupied them for a long time! We desperately need to simplify at home!

Our quiet, gentle, pensive daughter.

Family beach walk.

Helping Casey brave the water. 

Pure bliss.

Where I've been

Well, hello! It's been a while! 6 months have flown by and so much has happened. I think I am ready, and able, to start blogging again. I have missed it, because I do like documenting things for the sake of remembering them, but then again I haven't missed it because I'm sanguine. I love people and conversing with them. It's so much easier for me to share my life with people in front of me and share my heart with them. It's actually not as easy for me to do here. But I'm terrible at writing things down and I never have time to scrapbook so this is still a way for me to "store" it all. And, let me just throw in that life is short. And if anything were to ever happen to me, I want my children to be able to see and read this and know how much I cherished every day with them.

So in the next few weeks, expect a major dump of pictures and stories from the wonderful summer we had. And then I hope to blog about life as it currently happens - in all of it's crazy, wonderful, messy chaos. 

But here is a quick update! During my absence from the blog...

- We retired from FOCUS. This was a huge deal, and although we had a great deal of peace leaving staff, it was still difficult. FOCUS changed us, forever, for the better.

-Luke took a new job as Director of Development for Mount St. Mary's Seminary. Also a huge deal, the way it all came about was truly incredible, and was so clear to us this was God's plan.

-Since for the past 3 years, Luke has been the FOCUS team director at Mount St. Mary's University, we got to stay in our house, making this the first summer that we DID NOT MOVE since we have been married, and since 2006 for Luke.  We are pros at moving, and to NOT move felt weird, but SO good!

-I had to wean Owen from nursing at 9 months old and learn how to make rice milk formula. Much much more on all that later though.


So hold me to this ok? I hope to blog at least three times a week. I think that is manageable for this mama :)

Peace,
Megan

Hailey and Heirloom earrings

Ok, so that's probably an exaggeration. Heirloom implies worth a lot right? But what if it's worth a lot in sentimental value? That factors in too right? Anyway, I've had these earrings laying around forever. 

They are clip on, or rather, you screw them on (totally crazy and cool) and my Grandma gave them to me years ago. They are from one of my great great aunt's jewelry boxes. I have had the intention ever since she gave them to me, (I was seriously probably like 16), of taking them to a jeweler and having them made into actual earrings. They are s pretty and I thought they would be precious stud earrings. 

Well, I'm SO glad I didn't. 

She doesn't like being the center of attention and was being all goofy, self conscious and cute :)

They have found a new owner, and I think Hailey's Great Great Great Aunt would be pleased.

Broncos Disappoint

Well, they lost, and it was such an embarrassing final score, and with Peyton having just gotten MVP for the 5th time in his career...it was just such a disappointment. Like it wasn't even a good game. But so those things go. The half time show was fun and I have to say we did a pretty good job showing our Bronco love and support!

Every year the seminary has a super bowl party that we go to, and it's always a lot of fun. Great food and company. Luke decided to wear our Bronco blanket as a cape for fun (from his high school days in CO), and since it's our only Bronco item! hahaha. The kids had a fun time eating hot dogs and cookies, and crawling under tables (or tunnels). My favorite moment was when I asked Casey if it was time to go home and put on his Thomas pajamas and he said, "No, watch football."

Reading

How we spend these cold winter afternoons...

Even the boys get in on reading the disney princess books, haha. I so hope our children grow up with a love for reading! I used to spend summers lost in good books. I've been trying to read to them more and as their attention spans grow, it's becoming more and more fun. For a while I couldn't even get books from the library because they would be tearing dvds off the shelf making a HUGE mess. But now, they search (with minimal mess) for one dvd of their choice (a  Disney princess one for Hailey, Thomas the Train for Casey) while I use that 3 minutes to pick out 4 or 5 books. It's something I hope to keep up!

New Year's in Buffalo

This year we went up to my parent's house for New Year's. Three of my sisters were there which was awesome, but of course we missed the siblings that couldn't join us! We purposely timed the visit for the beginning of January so that when Luke was gone in TX for focus conference, I would have the company and help of my parents. We had such a wonderful time.

I think they did play dough every day.

Getting ready for his trip! Owen is showing his support. 

Casey LOVED having his boy cousins to play cars and trucks with.

Miss them so badly!

Sayler kids reading some classic stories with Grandma.

Auntie Maureen is so loved and adored by all her nieces and nephews.

I just love this girl. Perched and lost in a daydream.

Too cute.

Joseph, watching a show.

Our godson! He has such a sweet personality.

Casey and I had our own little tea party one afternoon...he got up before Hailey from nap...it was so special!

Our three munchkins.

Best friends. They love each other so much.

Family trip to the gym.

My friend Jenny over at Mama Needs Coffee is doing a Wellness Project and I have enjoyed reading her updates so so much! I think it is an awesome idea. As mothers we have constant demands from the little ones, not to mention taking care of the house and loving our spouse. Doing something daily for US is so important. The sweet woman I worked under during college in my work study job at the library would ask me every time I came into work, "Megan, what have you done for yourself today?" She asked us all that. She wanted to make sure we were taking care of ourselves in the midst of all the studying, work and having fun. She also kept extra vitamin C on her desk for all of us. But that question has always stuck with me. My vocation has changed from student to mother, but it is just as important now as it was then. Actually, probably more so. I didn't have babies then, who depend on me for everything.

I am a healthier person - emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, when I ask myself what have I done for myself. And it can be small. It just has to be something.

So, I've been joining Jenny from across the miles, you should too!

Yesterday, when Luke sent me a text asking if I wanted to bring the kids to the gym after nap time to let them burn off some energy and so we could take turns working out/watching them (they seriously should offer child care - all those college students! Come on! I know a ton of moms who would love it and use it), I said, yes definitely. The racquetball court was empty and the kids had brought two of their balls with them and wow, the squealing and running, and throwing and jumping....they were so happy. The hallways are super long too...the best for running....AND the swim team was having practice. They kept standing at the door staring at them and the girls in the pool were waving, smiling, pointing (coach kept giving us looks, but I couldn't tell if he was mad), and Casey was making their day by shyly waving back. Then when I walked over with Owen, you could practically hear the squeals through the sound proof glass doors. I like to think we do a lot of good for people's hearts and souls when we are on campus :)

Anyways, my work out felt great....although I will say I do prefer working out in the privacy of my own house better. Doing crunches on the mat next to one of Luke's disciples is not exactly what I have in mind when it comes to exercising! And ironically, or not, as I'm going through my sets of crunches, the song "Just the Way You Are" comes on my pandora station. I pretty much just stopped and smiled. I am amazing, just the way I am.

We came home hungry and tired. The kids devoured a ton of food and then collapsed into bed. It was amazing. Seriously, we'll be back soon. Very soon.

Christmas in review

This was the first year we stayed home for Christmas. It was so special to be just us and to enjoy the excitement of Hailey and Casey. It was such a lovely Christmas, completely peaceful and relaxed. We went to Mass on Christmas Eve, the kids loved the manger set.

When we got home, I had to capture them all dressed up in their Christmas attire. 

Her new thing is to pose as a ballerina for all pictures. I love how even her little fingers are shaped!

After dinner, of course came the rituals of putting out cookies (and beer) for Santa and laying out of our stockings. My grandma (and now my mom) knit all the Christmas stockings for each person in the family - Owen and little cousin Hilary were the ones to get stockings this year! They are such beautiful works of art and I treasure them. My Grandma taught me how to knit when I was little and I even made a Christmas stocking (they are not easy!) but I gave it away as a present in a Secret Santa exchange in our youth group! I don't think the male recipient fully appreciated it at all! haha, maybe I will make them again someday.

Believe it or not, I only have this one picture from Christmas morning! I think I have a video too, but really all I wanted to do was focus on them, and cherish the morning, not distracted by snapping pictures.

This was her new doll stroller. And she is wearing a new outfit she got and wanted on right away, and pink shoes, that rarely leave her feet. She calls them her "peepee toe shoes." I think she is trying to say tippytoe.

Just three days before Christmas I got mastitis. Horrible, horrible timing, and just as bad of an experience. Now I know what other mom's were talking about. But it made me slow down, let stuff go I wanted to get done and rest a lot. 

These silly monkeys came and found me resting around bedtime after Christmas....

Reading my new book from Luke, "The Temperment God Gave Your Kids." Highly recommend.

  

This little man is too precious for words.

One of my gifts from Luke was a date to see the Nutcracker ballet! It was in DC, performed by the Washington DC ballet company at the Warner. It was exquisitely beautiful and breathtaking. We had Owen with us and he loved the music. Didn't make a peep the whole time :::sigh::: I still play it over in my mind...such a memorable night.

And that, was our family Christmas of 2013!